London Stock Exchange today announces that it has entered in a partnership with APIR Systems, who will act as a registration agent in Australia and South East Asia to support the issuance and maintenance of Legal Entity Identifiers (LEI).

The process of acquiring an LEI has recently become more complex, with level 2 data requirements requesting mandatory information on an entities parent-child hierarchy. This partnership means APIR Systems can ensure that its clients are able to obtain an LEI, the required global standard providing improved transparency of financial transactions that cross jurisdictional borders, in order to remain compliant.

APIR Systems will continue to assist clients with understanding their LEI requirements but will now send details to London Stock Exchange for validation and approval.

There are still a large number of LEIs that need to be acquired before the go-live of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) reporting regime on 3 January 2018. Industry estimates suggest more than 250,000 entities are still without the required LEIs. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has stated that firms should not trade with counterparties that do not have an LEI as they will not be able to submit valid transaction reports.

Chris Donohoe, Chief Executive Officer, APIR Systems said: “As Australia’s identification standard for a range of unlisted financial instruments since the late 1990s, it is a natural evolution for APIR Systems to join the global LEI initiative. In 2015 APIR began issuing LEI’s and has now evolved that service by partnering with London Stock Exchange to leverage their technical expertise and global scale. Although MiFID II is relatively new to Australian entities it does impact a broad range of financial services firms that transact with European counterparties, including funds, SMSFs and traders. The relationship with London Stock Exchange offers benefits for both our existing clients and the new client segments that will soon be impacted by these changes.”

Pritha Sharma, Manager of LEI, Information Services, LSEG, added: “This partnership between London Stock Exchange and APIR Systems demonstrates our ongoing commitment to help market participants comply with a wide range of regulation. This partnership between London Stock Exchange and APIR looks to promote the LEI and raise awareness of the use of the identifier particularly in the Australasian market.”

London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) is an international markets infrastructure business. Its diversified global business focuses on capital formation, intellectual property and risk and balance sheet management. LSEG operates an open access model, offering choice and partnership to customers across all of its businesses. The Group can trace its history back to 1698.

The Group operates a broad range of international equity, ETF, bond and derivatives markets, including London Stock Exchange; Borsa Italiana; MTS (Europe's leading fixed income market); and Turquoise (a pan-European equities MTF). Through its platforms, LSEG offers market participants, including retail investors, institutions and SMEs unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets. The Group also plays a vital economic and social role, enabling companies to access funds for growth and development.

Through FTSE Russell, the Group is a global leader in financial indexing, benchmarking and analytic services with approximately $15 trillion benchmarked to its indexes. The Group also provides customers with an extensive range of data services, research and analytics through Mergent, SEDOL, UnaVista, XTF and RNS.

Post trade and risk management services are a significant part of the Group’s business operations. In addition to majority ownership of LCH, a multi-asset global CCP operator, LSEG owns CC&G, the Italian clearing house; Monte Titoli, a leading European custody and settlement business.

LSEG is a leading developer and operator of high performance technology solutions, including trading, market surveillance and post trade systems for over 40 organisations and exchanges, including the Group’s own markets. Additional services include network connectivity, hosting and quality assurance testing. MillenniumIT, GATElab and Exactpro are among the Group’s technology companies.

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, with significant operations in North America, Italy, France and Sri Lanka, the Group employs approximately 4,000 people.

Further information on London Stock Exchange Group can be found at www.lseg.com